The invention relates to artificial intelligence systems. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and apparatus for general purpose pattern recognition.
Numerous pattern recognition methodologies have been developed in the fields of natrual language processing and machine vision. Such methodologies have previously involved programming computers with specialized algorithms for solving a limited class of problems. The computational models upon which such systems are based, while occasionally attempting to model the cognitive or psychological aspects of learning, ordinarily provide no relation to physiological models such as the biological vision system believed to be present in the visual cortex of the human brain.
Biological learning systems are believed to involve extremely fast and accurate forms of pattern recognition. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, the human brain is belived to have tremendous pattern learning and abstraction capabilities. Combined, these abilities make the human brain and extraordinary general purpose pattern recognizer. If the biological pattern learning and recognition methodology could be discovered and understood, it would be theoretically possible to design effective pattern recognition hardware and software to mimic the natural systems.
Several prior neural-network-type pattern recognition models which attempt to mimic biological systems have been under investigation. Fukushima et al in their paper, 13 IEEE Transactions on Man, Systems and Cybernetics 826-834 (September/October 1983), "Neocognitron: A Neural Network Model for a Mechanism of Visual Pattern Recognition" discuss a neural network application which recognizes single characters but is not adapted to recognize a broad class of patterns. Feldman and Ballard, Cognitive Science 6, 205-254 (1982), "Connectionist Models and Their Properties" also discusses the development of neural network models. While some prior methods have achieved limited success in terms of recognition of particular patterns, no known systems in the prior art have succeeded in providing a satisfactory general purpose pattern recognition method and apparatus.